Edutainment

Voice 2:And I’m Joshua Leo. Welcome to Spotlight. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Voice 1:This is Urunana: a radio programme broadcast to the people of Rwanda, central Africa. Urunana is a soap opera – a series of programmes that tell stories about imaginary characters and events. Urunana is hugely popular in Rwanda. Millions of people listen to it each week! But why do people enjoy it so much? What is the secret of its success?

Voice 2:Well, the idea behind Urunana is not just to provide enjoyment to radio listeners. The aim is also to inform and educate listeners. Urunana discusses issues that are important to people’s lives and communities. Actors in the programme deal with ‘real life’ situations. Then, the listener can follow the characters’ progress as they deal with the problems before them.

Voice 1:One of the main characters is called Bushombe. He and his wife Kankwanzi live in the village of Nyarurembo. They are extremely poor. But Bushombe and Kankwanzi still manage to live a happy life together. One particular episode tells how Bushombe decides that he needs to go back to school – at the age of fifty! This one programme encouraged some older Urunana listeners. Many of them could not read or write. So they decided to follow Bushombe’s example and return to their local village school.

Voice 2:An aid group called Health Unlimited started the Urunana programme. It was first broadcast in 1999. At that time, Rwanda was still recovering from the effects of a terrible genocide – the planned killing of a whole race. The two main ethnic groups had a history of difficulty and unrest. But in 1994, it reached its worst point. An estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in just one hundred days. Most of the dead were from the Tutsi tribe. And most of those who did the killing were from the Hutu tribe. These events left Rwanda in a state of crisis. And many aid groups, like Health Unlimited, started some kind of development work in the country. They wanted to help communities return to living a peaceful, healthy life.

Voice 1:The team that produces the Urunana radio show often visits listeners around the country. They want people’s opinions about the programme. Their comments help the producers to write stories about issues that are most important to community life. Many of these issues are related to health. Others are concerned with social issues, like family planning. This can be a particularly important matter in country areas. There, jobs are few and men often have little money to support their families. But they still continue to have more and more children. In one village, a women’s group decided to act after listening to a particular Urunana programme. They took their husbands along with them to the local health centre. There, they discussed the use of family planning with medical workers. One woman explained this:

Voice 3:“I used to give birth almost every year. It has now been three years since I had a child. And I have decided not to have any more children.”

Voice 2:Urunana is an ‘edutainment’ programme. It combines education with entertainment – learning with fun activities. The first radio edutainment programme started in Colombia, South America. Jose Joachin Salcedo was a minister in the church. In 1947, Jose moved to the small mountain village of Sutatenza.